


stray

by girlsarewolves



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Batman: The Animated Series, Catwoman - All Media Types, DC Animated Universe (Timmverse)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Introspection, Light Angst, Past Abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-01
Updated: 2018-12-01
Packaged: 2019-08-29 18:17:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,162
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16749187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/girlsarewolves/pseuds/girlsarewolves
Summary: Home.His father had tried to explain the word to him during early lessons. Home was like a house or apartment or, "In your case, the jungle. The jungle of the island and my laboratory. These places are your home - but more importantly, they are your territory, which you must always protect."Home was where you lived. Home was territory; hunting ground.





	stray

**Author's Note:**

> An old fic I discovered on an old flash drive, but one I actually am happy with. I think I was originally going to write more of a closure ending, but the inspiration died. However, I think it works okay as is, so I'm just going ahead and posting it. Maybe one day I'll get the inspiration to continue it, even if just another chapter to wrap up Tygrus' search. Also Tygrus is underappreciated, and I'm kind of sad he didn't make another appearance in the actual show. Also, I know he showed up in the comics based on the animated series, I still have that issue, but this wasn't written with that in mind.

* * *

Home.

His father had tried to explain the word to him during early lessons. Home was like a house or apartment or, "In your case, the jungle. The jungle of the island and my laboratory. These places are your home - but more importantly, they are your territory, which you must always protect."

Home was where you lived. Home was territory; hunting ground.

Now his home was a pile of rubble and a slowly shrinking island. He ran to the edges of his territory and stared out across the water every day.

Father was beyond those waters.

Selina was beyond those waters.

But this was his home; this was where he lived. He and the others his father had made; some to be beautiful and please Father. Some to be prey; both were dwindling. Soon he would be the last living trace of his father left on their home.

But now Father's home was somewhere else. Somewhere Batman had taken him.

Tygrus stared at the ruins of his father's lab, of the place he had been created. He stared over the treetops, at the blue waters beyond the edge, at the colors of the setting sun.

Home could no longer be home.

* * *

He crossed the waters.

It took hours, he knew. It took until his limbs burned with the exertion; a foreign but welcome feeling that reminded him of times when he was small and new, and home seemed vast and neverending. When Father had drilled and drilled and drilled; "You must be perfect, Tygrus. Deadly, swift, ferocious. This is what you were made for, and you will be beyond all other life on this earth."

He remembered running and leaping, climbing and stalking upon prey only to jump too soon or walk too loudly; then he had to start all over. Over and over until he got it right.

"Again!" Father would yell.

Again, he told himself; the voice in his head was like an echo. His father's; Selina's; his own. Again, when he tired and wanted to rest. But there was no rest in the sea, and so he kept moving, kept swimming towards the horizon as land began to form in his vision.

He was close now. Close to land, close to the world his father had shunned; close to the world Father had said would never accept Tygrus.

Close to Selina. (And the Batman.)

Again.

* * *

Sights. Scents. Sounds.

There was noise everywhere, and the smells overwhelmed him - but oh, all that there was to see! Too much, too much, too soon.

He hid; as soon as he reached land, he hid. He stuck to the trees, to the familiarity of their shade. He could smell food and people; people like Father, like Batman, like Selina had been and was again. He stuck to the shadows and searched out the scents and sounds.

Loud; it was so loud. Talking and shouting and people moving and leaves rustling in the breeze. The soft creaking of bicycle chains and the roar of car engines.

He had never seen cars (or bicycles, for that matter). His father had explained them, in mechanical words and technological terms. He had not known they could come in so many colors, so many shapes, so many different hums and rumbles and roars.

Everything was loud; not just the noise, no. He could not think of any better word to describe the sights and smells other than loud in their own ways.

His world was suddenly louder than he could ever have imagined - and big, so much bigger, too.

Big enough to find a home, maybe.

* * *

Gotham.

That was where Selina lived. Where Batman had taken Father.

Tygrus remembered Gotham on the maps his father had kept, had taught him to read. "I teach you this to help your mind grow, Tygrus. This world is not for you, but the knowledge, the learning! It will help to make you smarter. Better," he had said, with a gleam of pride in his eyes (proud of himself; never, ever Tygrus).

He had learned those maps. He had memorized them.

After he slept in the darkness of the trees, after he had hunted the sweet smelling buck - beautiful and swift, and it had caused him sorrow to kill and eat, but he had to survive - he went to learn his surroundings. He had come from the west, yes. So southeast was where Gotham was.

Where Selina and Father and Batman were.

He did not think it was where he would find a home, though. He did not think it was where he wanted to go.

Gotham would shun him; perhaps with pitying glances and sweet words like Selina, or cruel, harsh blows like Father had upon his failure.

No. Gotham would not give him a home. He would go there and find Father, yes. Maybe Selina - or would Batman be there and stop him? Was Gotham the Batman's jungle? Would he allow Tygrus there? He had not shunned Tygrus, nor had he welcomed him.

He would not stay long. He would try to see Father, try to see Selina. Then he would go, and Batman would not need to force him out.

Gotham it was. For now.

* * *

Selina.

He dreamt of Selina.

On the island, after she had come and then Batman had taken her and Father away, he had always dreamt of her. Of the beautiful, golden creature his father had briefly made her; the softness of her fur, the allure of her figure prowling through the trees.

His mate. His beautiful, golden mate; like a lioness or a puma. He had not even known how lonely his existence was until Father had shown her to him, promised him that she was his to claim.

Their cubs...their, children, would have been beautiful and perfect; "A superior race, and the two of you shall be its Adam and Eve. You remember the story of the Garden of Eden, Tygrus?" Father had questioned, testing.

"Yes, Father. Created by the Hebrew God, they lived together in harmony with the land."

Father had nodded and smiled approvingly; "Very good. But their perfection diminished. Mine," he had said, looking at the unconscious human woman he was about to remake in his ideal of perfection, "Will not."

Selina.

She had come already with knowledge though; the knowledge of being human. Was that not Eve's sin that ruined God's perfection? Eve had learned what it was to be mortal, and so mortal - imperfect - she became. Adam had easily followed.

Tygrus did not remember their God beating them when He was disappointed, though.

Father. He loved his father. In this cold, concrete, human world, he hated his father. He knew what it was to hate; not to hunt without human emotion, but to hate and to hunt for the thrill of power, knowing it as humans know it.

In this world after the fall, he knew what it was to be alone.

Selina. He dreamt of Selina.

* * *

 


End file.
